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Young barefoot skier enjoys quick rise to top
By STEVE LEE
© St. Petersburg Times, HUDSON -- Some skiers have trouble getting out of the water on two skis while others learn to slalom. And the most daring are those who can stay afloat without skis. For 10-year-old Ryan Harrower of Hudson, barefoot skiing is as simple as, well, walking around barefoot. "He's just a natural," said Harrower's 14-year-old sister, Tasha. "He can do things that other people can't. He doesn't have any fear at all." Harrower first took to the water as a 2-year-old when his father, Bob Harrower, put him on a kneeboard and pulled him around Moon Lake. At the age of 5, Ryan got up on skis. At age 7, he tried barefooting. "It was actually pretty easy when I tried it," said Harrower, who proudly said he got up on the first attempt at barefoot skiing. "I thought it would take me a few tries." Since then, Harrower has learned numerous tricks and stunts, which have paid off rather handsomely. In a competition June 9 on Fort Lauderdale's Mills Pond, Harrower won two events -- slalom and tricks -- and earned $200 and two trophies. And, to his father's delight, Harrower got a sponsor -- Sam-Jam's Water Sports of Tarpon Springs -- earlier this month. "Thank goodness," Bob Harrower said. "They just bought him $400 worth of equipment." Harrower is already a two-time division champion of the Barefoot Bonanza, an annual competition held on Silver Lake in Winter Haven. Winning his first trophy at the Barefoot Bonanza, Harrower said, "was pretty cool." "He's more advanced than what I expected right now," his father said. "When he's out there (on the water) you can see the determination on his face. He does like showing off." While Harrower relishes the challenge of progressing through one-legged skiing, sitdown-standups, spins, tumble-turns and toe-holds, he maintains his primary reason for skiing every weekend: "It's just fun." "I try to make it fun for him," Bob Harrower said, adding if his son became burned out on the sport as a teen he would not force him to continue. That seems a far-off notion at this point, considering Harrower wants to become a pro skier and is being trained by pro skier Keith St. Onge. Some of Harrower's Shady Hills Elementary School classmates know about his skiing, but more learned about it when he placed third in a Tropicana Speech contest about the sport. "They don't really know what it is," Harrower said. "They ask me if it's hard and stuff. I tell them, "To me it's easy, but to some people it's hard."' Tasha is proud of her younger brother, saying she and 16-year-old sister Crystal used to ski more often. Now, they help their brother with the tow lines and spot him as he does stunts. "I can't believe he's gone this far," Tasha said. With prospects of a pro career or making the U.S. Junior Barefoot team, Harrower might go a bit farther in his sport.
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From today's Pasco Times Jan Glidewell |
